HILO, Hawai'i — Family and friends yesterday mourned the five people killed in a crash in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Friday, including painter and photographer Lucia Clearwater.

Clearwater, her friend Loretta Rafferty and Samuel Furtado had just gone to dinner in Volcano Village, and the three were returning to to the Kilauea Military Camp to drop Clearwater off at her car when they crashed, said Hallelujah Thurston, Clearwater's daughter.

Park rangers said the 2005 Porsche SUV Furtado was driving crossed the center line of the highway at about 10 p.m. and collided with two sedans headed in the opposite direction toward Hilo.

All three in the SUV were killed, along with 32-year-old Candice Shonah Chisholm and her boyfriend, Owen Lloyd Romaine, 33, who were in the lead car headed toward Hilo.

The driver of the second sedan, 37-year-old Antony Gross, was pinned in his Chevrolet Monte Carlo by the crash, and had to be extracted from the car by firefighters. Gross was flown to The Queen's Medical Center with leg injuries. His passenger Daniel Fisher, 43, declined medical treatment.

Thurston said her mother was an avid sailor who first visited Hawai'i when she was 16 on an around-the-world cruise with her parents. Clearwater returned as an adult "to escape from California," Thurston said.

She lived on Maui from 1959 to 1989, and then moved to the Big Island, where she became deeply involved in community affairs.

She was an environmentalist and former president of the East Hawai'i Coalition for the Homeless, worked at polling places during elections, and was an advocate for women's rights, Thurston said.

She was also a "world class" gourmet health-food chef who cooked for restaurants on Maui and the Big Island, and also designed clothes.

"She had a flair for dressing with her own style. She was energetic, classy and extremely intelligent," Thurston said.

Clearwater, 60, liked to photograph hula performances and cultural rituals at the volcanoes, and had been working recently on a painting of the goddess Pele brushing her hair at a pool of lava. "She loved the artist community in Volcano," Thurston said.

Long an avid sailor, Clearwater was one of four people who were stranded off Kaho'olawe in a life raft when their 37-foot sailboat struck a reef and sank. The group was rescued, but Thurston said her mother was disabled after that accident.

"The immediate family and many friends are shattered by the tragic loss of Lucia, our mother, grandmother, wife, lover, friend to so many, and of her incredible energy and commitment to family and friends."

"She will be remembered, she was loved by all of us," Thurston said. Clearwater also is survived by Thurston's 3-year-old daughter, Ruth Thurston-Grace.

Also in the Porsche was Loretta Rafferty, another longtime Maui resident who had moved to the Volcano area. Rafferty was mother of two daughters, ages 14 and 16.

Rafferty's mother, Dee Larson, said her daughter was a teacher, lifeguard, paddler and swim instructor "with salt water in her veins, just like her mom."

Rafferty, 46, grew up in West Maui and graduated from Lahainaluna High School. She loved big-wave body surfing, and while still in high school was active in efforts to preserve the popular surf spot known as Slaughterhouse at Honolua.

Larson said she received one call after another from people who knew and cared about Rafferty, and said she wants to spread Rafferty's ashes at Slaughterhouse.

"She was loved," Larson said.

Chisholm and Romaine, who are both of Vancouver, British Columbia, were on vacation in Hawai'i.

Furtado, 55, was a Volcano resident. In 1981 and 1999 he had been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. Park rangers said speed and alcohol are believed to be factors in the crash.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.